A symposium is planned to be held September 20-23, 1991, for the purpose of investigating the role of transforming growth factor type beta and related proteins in development. The key participants in the symposium will present lectures 45 minutes in length with 15 minutes for discussion. As well as the plenary sessions, a poster session and workshops will be organized to promote informal and in-depth discussion among the participants. The subjects to be covered will include 1) specific developmental systems in which members of the TGF-beta superfamily influence development, 2) the role of the extracellular matrix in the actions of TGF-beta, 3) the interaction of TGF-beta with its receptor, and 4) intracellular signaling and gene regulation by TGF-beta. The participants will be chosen to represent a broad range of scientific fields including biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, and developmental biology. One of the important aspects of this symposium is that it is designed to bring together various groups of investigators that have, until now, not interacted very frequently. These groups include those who are studying development in Drosophila, mammals, and amphibians and those studying the action of growth factors on cells in culture. The recent discoveries that reveal the apparently ubiquitous existence of the TGF-beta superfamily and its association with development have also revealed a common basis for interaction among these investigators. The purpose of this conference is to bring together different areas of investigation of the action of TGF-beta and to explore common threads in developmental systems. The goal of the symposium is to gain a better understanding of the role of the TGF-beta superfamily in development.